How Charles Dickens Fueled a World of Spontaneous Combustion Truthers | Mental Floss

“When Charles Dickens published this scene in December 1852—an installment from his serialized novel Bleak House—most readers swallowed it as fact. After all, Dickens wrote realistic stories, and he took great pains to render scientific matters like smallpox infections and neurological disorders accurately. So even though Krook was fictional, the public trusted that Dickens had portrayed spontaneous combustion with his customary precision.” Click How Charles Dickens Fueled a World of Spontaneous Combustion Truthers | Mental Floss for the rest of the article.